The systems in place to protect women from male violence are not working. The Femicide Census, launched today, makes that clear... We hope the census will be a wake up call to our imminent new government, of whatever colour, to ensure that one agency locally is held accountable for understanding and meeting the needs of women experiencing and escaping domestic violence, to preserve the national network of life-saving women's refuges, and above all to make solving this crisis one of the most urgent social policy priorities.

The energy in the room was an intrinsically positive one, with each nominee being extremely supportive of each other. The evening, hosted by Brian Dowling of Big Brother fame and Cerrie Burnell who is a keen supporter of several charities, was kicked off by founder of the NDA's Paul Sesay.

Women are a community and our community is not safe. Our community is being killed by men - and whether we're killed by our partners or ex-partners, our sons, our muggers, our rapists; whether we're 22 or 82, whatever our race or religion or lack of religion, whether we're prostituted women, brain surgeons or shop assistants, none of us should count more than any other.

Let's stop pretending that fatal male violence against women are isolated events; or that fatal male violence is somehow distinct from non-fatal male violence. If we truly want to eliminate male violence against women and children, then we need to start contextualising male violence within a culture that classes women as sub-human.